Lead guitar is a guitar part which plays melody lines, instrumental fill passages, guitar solos, and occasionally, some riffs within a song structure. The lead is the featured guitar, which usually plays single-note-based lines or double-stops. In rock, heavy metal, blues, jazz, punk, fusion, some pop, and other music styles, lead guitar lines are usually supported by a second guitarist who plays rhythm guitar, which consists of accompaniment chords and riffs.

To create lead guitar lines, guitarists use scales, modes, arpeggios, licks, and riffs that are performed using a variety of techniques. In rock, heavy metal, blues, jazz and fusion bands and some pop contexts as well as others, lead guitar lines often employ alternate picking, sweep picking, economy picking and legato (e.g., hammer ons, pull offs), which are used to maximize the speed of their solos or riffs. Such "tricks" can employ the picking hand used in the fret area (such as tapping), and even be augmented and embellished with devices such as bows, or separate electronic devices such as an EBow (electronic bow).

Vincent "Vinnie" Moore (born April 14, 1964) is a guitarist and a member of the English hard rock band UFO. Along with Yngwie Malmsteen, Tony MacAlpine, and others, Moore is known as one of the most influential shred guitarists.

Moore was born in New Castle, Delaware. He began his professional career at age of 12 and played clubs and bars until Shrapnel executive Mike Varney discovered him through a magazine article. His connection to Varney led to an opportunity to appear in a Pepsi commercial in 1985, (only Vinnie's hands appeared in the commercial as his guitar playing is heard. Following this, Moore recorded his first solo album, Mind's Eye, released on Shrapnel Records and featured Tony MacAlpine on keyboards. The album received several awards from guitar magazines and sold over 100,000 copies.^{[citation needed]}

Vinnie Moore played lead guitar with the heavy metal band Vicious Rumors on their debut album, Soldiers of the Night. The album features Moore's solo-song, "Invader", which was in the style of Van Halen's "Eruption". The shred guitar craze of the late eighties led to more releases for Shrapnel.^{[citation needed]} Moore also began performing with other hard rock and heavy metal bands.^{[citation needed]} He joined Alice Cooper's band for a tour and then appeared on the Hey Stoopid album. Following this Moore released two instructional videos on guitar playing. He has been the lead guitarist for UFO since 2004.

Christopher Dwayne "Chris" Tomlin (born May 4, 1972) is an American Christian Contemporary Music artist, worship leader, and songwriter from Grand Saline, Texas, United States. He was a staff member at Austin Stone Community Church and is signed to EMI's sixstepsrecords. Tomlin leads worship at many Passion events. Some of his most well-known songs are "How Great Is Our God", "Jesus Messiah", "Amazing Grace (My Chains Are Gone)", and the recent song "Our God" which he co-wrote with Matt Redman, Jesse Reeves and Jonas Myrin. He is currently a worship leader at Passion City Church in Atlanta, Georgia with Louie Giglio and Christy Nockels.

He was awarded Male Vocalist of the Year at the 2006, 2007, 2008 GMA Dove Awards, and Grammy Award Winner for Best Contemporary Christian Music Album in 2012. He was named Artist of the Year in 2007. Tomlin released his seventh studio album, And If Our God Is for Us..., on November 16, 2010. He is one of the members of CompassionArt, a charity founded by Martin Smith (and Smith's wife, Anna) of the band Delirious?.

George Harrison,MBE (25 February 1943 – 29 November 2001) was an English musician and singer-songwriter who achieved international fame as lead guitarist of The Beatles. Often referred to as "the quiet Beatle", Harrison became over time an admirer of Indian culture and mysticism, and introduced it to the other Beatles, as well as their Western audience. Following the band's break-up he was a successful solo artist, and later a founding member of the Traveling Wilburys. Harrison was also a session musician and a film and record producer. He is listed at number 11 in Rolling Stone magazine's list of "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time".

Although most of The Beatles' songs were written by Lennon and McCartney, Beatle albums generally included one or two of Harrison's own songs, from With The Beatles onwards. His later compositions with The Beatles include "Here Comes the Sun", "Something" and "While My Guitar Gently Weeps". By the time of the band's break-up, Harrison had accumulated a backlog of material, which he then released as the triple album All Things Must Pass in 1970, from which two hit singles originated: a double A-side single, "My Sweet Lord" backed with "Isn't It a Pity", and "What Is Life". In addition to his solo work, Harrison co-wrote two hits for former Beatle Ringo Starr, as well as songs for the Traveling Wilburys—the supergroup he formed in 1988 with Jeff Lynne, Bob Dylan, Tom Petty, and Roy Orbison.